Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast has become a comfortable sameness over the last few years. It was hard to find a cold cereal that wasn't loaded with carbs and I experimented with all sorts of other things for that fast-breaking meal.

But the truth of it is I am the kind of person who hits the ground running most mornings and I don't want to waste thought on it. I have more time to think of other meals and snacks but breakfast defeated me until I found My Perfect Breakfast.

(Okay, in the interest of complete disclosure, a Full English is My Perfect Breakfast but since I'm not a farm-worker it simply isn't practical or healthy to have that fatty goodness every day of the world.)

It starts with a half-portion of old-fashioned oats, into which is splashed enough water from the kettle to cover them. I then put the kettle on to boil for tea, usually a cup not a potful. The oats absorb rather a lot of the water and when the kettle has boiled, I turn the burner on simmer and put the pan of oats on it.

I make my cuppa and let it steep.

I slice a half banana into the bopttom of My Favorite Bowl, add a handful of raw nuts (walnuts right now) and a teaspoon of ginger preserves.

The oats are fluffy by this point and a little gooey--they get plopped onto the banana-nut-ginger mess and stirred up.

Add a splash of the milk of your choice, stir it all up and call it breakfast

3 comments:

Lately, I start with some fresh fruit (in winter, this usually means banana, grapefruit, pineapple, orange), then have two fried eggs and two thin slices of ham, all of it cooked in a cast iron pan with butter. And plenty of coffee with cream.

I do like oats for breakfast; once I get out of my carb overload post-holidays funk I will probably implement that again. I like oatmeal with milk and sliced banana.

I've come to enjoy a couple of slices of Priory soda bread (made with rolled oats and wholemeal flour) broken up in a small bowl of milk. With a couple of ounces of cheese and some fresh fruit, and some strong coffee, it gets me through the morning.